Calendar spring and celebrations of faith
Each faith tradition offers beauty, community, and hope. Each can be misused to control and dominate.
We’re in March, and in the northern hemisphere that means we’re starting “calendar spring” - the three months on the calendar that average temperatures and conditions midway between winter and summer. Maybe that’s a technicality, as the spring equinox is still a few weeks away, but I will take it. At our latitude, we now have some daylight for almost 12 hours. Snowdrops continue their late winter bloom, and more spring bulbs push their noses up through mud and snow each day.
All these signs of the reemergence of life, of growth after a period of sleep and rest, carry such promise, such hope. It’s no wonder many major spiritual and religious traditions celebrate spring. Christians among us look to Easter; Muslims observe Ramadan; Hindus mark Holi. Some place the start of the new year in spring rather than midwinter.
The shared core of spring observances, the gratitude for rebirth and renewal, is an opportunity to resist the imposition of one religious program, one set of rules and observances, one set of beliefs on our nation as a whole. Let us say this plainly: the United States was founded as a secular government. The founders, flawed as they were, made their intent clear on this principle: Government and religion are to be separate.
Each faith tradition offers beauty, community, and hope. Each can be misused to control and dominate. As the early spring landscape shows, life itself insists on growing in all its diversity; it can only be controlled through unnatural violence.
I hope you’ll take some time to listen to or read the transcript of this interview on the rise of Christian nationalism, and let it inform our shared work to protect the beautiful diversity of our human family.
Be safe and well, and watch for growth - it’s out there, and in our hearts.